Massive NSA Data Center Crippled By Consecutive Electrical Surges

AP

By Zoe Schlanger

October 8, 2013 6:41 am

The National Security Agency’s massive new data-storage center in Utah has been crippled by 10 meltdowns in the past 13 months, halting the agency’s computer use in the facility, according to documents obtained by the Wall Street Journal.

Electrical surges described as “a flash of lightning inside a 2-foot box” have destroyed hundreds of thousands of dollars worth of machinery and delayed the opening of the one million square-foot facility, WSJ reported. The cause of the repeated failures is under investigation.

NSA spokeswoman Vanee Vines acknowledged problems to the WSJ, but called the failures “mitigated.”

“A project of this magnitude requires stringent management, oversight, and testing before the government accepts any building,” Vines told WSJ.